Notations

“Cabbagetown”

Margaret Muller Kempson, 2008

Margaret, aka “Molly,” is an artist from Charleston, South Carolina who currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.  She graduated from Agnes Scott College with a degree in studio art in 2009 and continues to make artwork wherever and whenever she can, lately focusing on staining and painting wood.  This is one of her screen prints.

I chose this piece because I resided in Atlanta for a short period of time, but while I was there I witnessed two separate tornadoes.  This is from the first one, and shortly after the picture was taken the second struck.  I remember seeing Cabbagetown, which is a small community just shy of downtown, the day after the first tornado and I remembered when I was a child growing up in Reisterstown, Maryland when our neighborhood was also struck by a tornado; the mental images I have are somewhat similar of these two places that are hundreds of miles apart.

 

 

“Henryton”

Margaret Muller Kempson, 2009

This is the same artist as the first image.

Henryton is a very special place for me.  I grew up on the opposing side of the Patapsco River from Henryton and ever since I was a child, I was mystified and terrified at the same time by the abandoned institution.  1984 was the last time these buildings had seen any official business and by the time my friends and I began to explore the halls, it was 2002.  When we first arrived, we began spending every day exploring the buildings and there were only traces of human activity; a few shoes, a pillow, writing on the chalkboards that indicated the police had used it for training, etc.  By the time I had left for college, the place was nothing like what it used to be.  I returned after a few years at school only to discover that the theater had been burned down by arson and that was when it became painfully clear how time had worn down the place that I used to wander day and night with my friends.  This is an image of the Henryton Sanitorium after the fire had taken place.

 

 

 I have two songs to share because music is my favorite form of expression; however, since I can not post these I will bring them to class.

 

 

“Pompeii Mouth”

Esmeralda’s Eyes, 2009
Evan Chapman, Alex Jimeson, Mike Chappell

Esmeralda’s Eyes is a progressive rock trio from the Marriottsville, Maryland area and made their first debut at a talent show at Marriott’s Ridge High school back in 2008.  Shortly after, they started playing shows around Baltimore and saving up what little money they had earned.  After the summer ended, all their savings went straight towards studio time in Philadelphia with producer Justin Chapman to record a six track EP, and this song is from those studio sessions.

I chose this song because I know all of the people from this band and they are all good friends of mine.  I have grown up with some of them since the tender age of 6 and have explored Henryton with them and even played music with some of them and their older siblings over the years.  We all started playing music together and when I returned from Atlanta, they had just begun the process of writing their first songs.  I went to all of their shows and the music they played always corresponded to exactly what my friends and I were in search of.  This song is also a bit of an inside joke, so it holds a very special place in my heart.

“Mother and brother”

 Aaron Mirenzi, 2010

Aaron is a friend that I made here at school in the first few weeks of freshman year and we actually used to play music together back then.  However, we only garnish a few opportunities here and then to actually play together these days, and now Aaron has taken his music in his own direction and I believe this was the first recording he ever made.

This song has such a great feeling to it and I remember the first time that I saw Aaron perform this at a coffee house; I was blown away.  I had known that he was working on music and I definitely did not expect it to be bad, but I most certainly was not anticipating it to be this catchy and aloof even though I had heard Aaron play before (never a song he had finished writing, though).  He recorded this inside of the school’s library on the third floor and this song just makes me think of all the time that I have spent at this school growing into who I am today.